Jakarta, March 24 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government has yet to
respond to a plan of a Commission of Experts the UN has assigned to
investigate 1999 human rights abuses in East Timor to visit Indonesia,
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said here Thursday. "We are still
considering what we will say to the Commsssion's plan. And this will take
some time," Hassan said, adding that the Commission intended to
arrive in Indonensia on April 10.

But so far the Commission's members had not asked for visa to visit
Indonesia, he said.

Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono at a meeting with UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan in New York recently had called on the world
organization to cancel its plan to send its Commission of Experts to
Indonesia.

Juwono said, it was not necessary for the commission to come to
Indonesia because the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments last March 9
had established a Commission of Truth and Friendship that would also
handle the human rights cases.

The UN commission's visit to Indonesia, Juwono said, would become a
"hot potato" that could disturb the reconciliation process
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his East Timorese
counterpart Xanana Gusmao had agreed to pursue

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)

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GOVT HOPING UN EXPERTS COMMISSION WON'T NEED TO COME TO RI

March 23, 2005 5:42am

Jakarta, March 22 (ANTARA) - Indonesia is hoping the Experts Commission
the UN has set up to reinvestigate the 1999 human rights violation cases
in Timor Leste will not need to carry out its mandate or come to Indonesia
because Indonesia and Timor Leste already have set up a Truth and
Friendship Commission to deal with the matter, Defence Minister Juwono
Sudarsono said here on Tuesday.

"We hope the UN commission will not reexpose the cases and nor
come to Indonesia. It is enough for the commission to conduct an exchange
of documents and past records with Indonesia," he said after meeting
with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to report the results of his
recent visit to the US where he had also met with UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan.

Juwono said there was no need for the UN commission to come to
Indonesia because Indonesia and Timor Leste had already set up a Truth and
Frienship Commission to settle the matter.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Timor Leste President
Xanana Gusmao signed an greement on the establishment of the commission in
Jakarta on March 9.

Juwono said Kofi Annan had said he would study the framework used by
the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission.

He said if the UN Commission came to Indonesia it could become a
"wild ball" and a political "ping-pong" ball that
could mess up the reconciliation that President Yudhoyono and President
Xanana had built so far.

He said the presence of two commissions would confuse both the people
of Indonesia and Timor Leste.

Juwono said the Truth and Friendship Commission also involved human
rights and legal experts as well as academics and politicians.

"They are not inferior compared to the three legal experts
assigned by Kofi Annan," he said.

He said there was no need for the UN Commission to revive past
incidents in East Timor and make a problem out of it.

Asked what if the UN continued with its plan to send the commission
here, Juwono said Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda was currently still
studying the possibility and later would consult with the President before
a decision would be made.